What’s Cool

5 Social Platforms to Put on Your “Fadar”!

Over the last several years lots of social platforms have come and gone. Some are slowly fading away. It’s really hard to keep track of where to spend your time and energy! 2012 will remain a big year for big players such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn and similarly, we should also expect to see exponential growth for newcomers like Pinterest. However, as newcomers gain momentum, we will start to see other social networks fizzle off. Here are 5 social platforms we think you should put on your “fadar” (aka fading radar):

1. Quora: The question and answer platform was predicted to be the next big thing in 2010. However, half way through 2011 the big buzz surrounding the site slowly started to fade off. The site still receives decent traffic, with an estimate of 500,000 users, however, as new social sites emerge Quora might not be at the top of social minds.
2. Digg: The once beloved site-sharing website has been dying a slow death for several years. It hasn’t been able to compete with sites like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. It is my opinion that it is just a matter of time before it completely fizzles off. A few months ago it did launch a new version of the site, however, it doesn’t seem like users found it very appealing. A couple of years ago a great article would have received on average 3000 Diggs, now you’re lucky if you even get 100.
3. Delicious: This social bookmarking site had everything going for it back in 2005. It was new to the scene and had no real competitors. What happened? As new bookmarking sites started to saturate the market Delicious didn’t reinvent quickly enough. Rumors are it might shut-down or sell its technology.
4. Gowalla: This location-based site was once a fierce competitor for foursquare, both entering the market at about the same time 2 years ago. However, foursquare quickly gained momentum with over 1 billion check-ins to date, leaving Gowalla in the dust. Gowalla’s leadership has now joined forces with Facebook. According to industry insiders, Facebook has not purchased the technology, only the talent. Gowalla will slowly fade out.
5. QR Codes: There’s a huge online debate about whether QR (Quick Response) Codes are slowly starting to die off before they’ve even had the chance to really take off. Some people may think, why would QR Codes be on the “fadar”? I see them everywhere? Well, that’s exactly my point. The ubiquitous use of QR Codes in often ill-conceived marketing efforts, is what might lead to its demise.

What do you think? Do you take issue with any of the above observations? Are there networks or tools you feel should be on the fadar?

Maryam Mehrtash
@socialmaryam

Tags: cool, Delicious, digg, facebook, foursquare, google, gowalla, LinkedIn, pinterest, QR codes, reddit, Social Media, technology, Twitter, youtube

5 Tips For Your Foursquare Explore Social Strategy

If you haven’t claimed your foursquare profile yet, you might want to get on that asap! If the fact that the site’s database has 1.5 billion check-ins logged into the system isn’t enough of a an incentive, then perhaps knowing that foursquare has gone “search” online with their newest feature Explore with the website garnering 1 million unique visitors per day already could entice you.

By claiming your foursquare profile you can personalize it to suit your business and take advantage of integrating this platform into your social media (geo-location) strategy. In addition to checking-in, claiming badges and mayorships, now users can search for locations, deals, and places on their desktop using the Explore feature. Some people don’t like having a Foursquare account on their mobile phones and “checking-in” all the time, but would like to use this feature to see where their friends are checking-in and what they recommend. Foursquare Explore allows you to go online and search without having to use the platform as a check-in tool. It is useful for the end user to go through the 15 million tips that are gathered on the site already when deciding on where to go and what to eat… or drink!

Here are five tips to include in your strategy in order to ensure increased visits from Foursquare Explore to your company’s profile page:

1. Regularly monitor your foursquare account. Review check-ins, comments, and tips to see what users are saying.
2. Use QR codes to encourage check-ins, tips, and submissions.
3. Promote Foursquare ads to encourage check-ins.
4. Include sentiments and adjectives in your foursquare ad strategy (i.e. romantic, Friday, sweet, summer, wine list, etc…)
5. Use keywords when posting deals on your foursquare account to help with search queries.

Happy searching!

Maryam
@socialmaryam

Tags: badges, explore, foursquare, geo-location, SEO, social, strategy, tips, visitors

What the Heck is Pinterest and Why Should You Care?

Quick. Take a stab at naming the top ten social sites.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn… these ones come easily to mind, but it may surprise you to learn that Pinterest also makes the cut. Coming in at #10, it’s clear that Pinterest is gaining traction fast. It may be time to sit up and notice it, if you haven’t already been lured by its slick and glossy look.

What the heck is it?

The name explains the essence of what it’s about: ‘Pin’ items of ‘interest’. It acts like a virtual pushpin board for things found around the web. Users can create multiple boards, each dedicated to something of interest to them. For example, a board for travel, a board for recipes, a board for home decor. You get the idea. It’s social bookmarking, revisited & refreshed.

Although still in invite-only mode, in just one week alone last December (2011) Pinterest is said to have attracted 11-million visits. It’s growing at an incredible rate, seeing a 4000% jump in traffic from just six months ago. Monthly visits are said to be averaging 3.2-million.

The website is most popular with women aged 25-44, accounting for 58% of the userbase in the past three months (Experian Hitwise). Here are some thoughts on why those who like it, like it a lot. Indeed it must be onto something when it starts spawning copycats.

So why should you care?

There is a business case for participating on Pinterest. It is reported that Real Simple magazine is getting more referral traffic from Pinterest, than from Facebook. From a business perspective, there are many opportunities for building a fan base, building awareness for products, and getting more traffic to your website, but you need to go about it the right way. Pinterest states very clearly there shall be no blatant promoting and marketing on the site. So what can you do? Some ideas are expanded on here, but I think one truth for gaining traction as a business on Pinterest is to have smoking hot photos of smoking hot products. This will inspire members to pin them on their boards, and thus increase the exposure of the business through the image. (Images link back to the original site)

So there you have it. Some pretty compelling reasons to consider Pinterest as a serious player in your ongoing online strategy.

Erin

Tags: facebook, pinterest, strategy

Google Domination

Google has just unveiled its Google+ Project. Essentially, the social sharing and networking features are very similar to Facebook. At least one Google representative suggested that people desire a better version of Facebook. Google+ hopes to be the answer.

But wait a minute.  All the similarities of the new Google+ features position Google to take on a lot more than Facebook. See for yourself.

Google+ offers its users a new way to…

1. Organize friends & connections thanks to +Circles.
   Or you could keep using: Facebook Groups.
2. Communicate with specific groupings of friends and/or family thanks to +Circles.
   Or you could keep using: Facebook Groups, Email groupings
3. Group-text thanks to +Huddle.
   Or you could keep using: Beluga, GroupMe, WhatsApp, Grouped{in},
   KIK, or countless others.
4. Show off photos taken with your phone thanks to +Instant Upload.
   Or you could keep using: Instagram, Hipstamatic,  Pano,  Pocketbooth,
   Camera+,  360,  Mobli, or a zillion other apps.
5. Geek out over niche interests thanks to +Sparks.
   Or you could keep using: Quora, Blogs, or many forums.
6. Group chat thanks to +Hangouts.
   Or you could keep using: Skype Group Chat, Fring, or video-enabled instant messaging.
7. Share your physical location with friends thanks to +Location, Location, Location.
   Or you could keep using: Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, or several other location-based apps.
8. Share content thanks to +(all of the above).
   Or you could keep using: all the things you’re used to.

Well, you’ll likely have to for the next while anyway – as Google+ is pre-Beta, meaning invitation-only.   No confirmed date on when Google+ will roll out to a general audience.

Have some more tools we could add to these lists above? Share ‘em and I’ll add ‘em.

- Erin

Tags: google

Google Webmaster Tools – Search Query Update

On October 8, 2010, Google announced a great update to its Webmaster Tools. The search queries feature in Webmaster Tools, displays the different search queries, or keywords, that triggered your website to display in Google’s search results.

The metrics displayed for each search query include the number of impressions (times your website appeared in the results), clicks, click-through-rate and average position (your website’s position in the search results). With Google’s newest update, these metrics now include a percentage change figure to indicate whether or not keyword performance improved.

This data can be used to measure whether your SEO initiatives are reaching your goals and expectations.

Tags: google, keyword, search query, search results, update, webmaster tools